Birth Control Ad: The Fight for TV Time

By NADINE BROZAN

Published: August 24, 1987

The television advertisement says: ''Four out of five young women who don't use birth control get pregnant before they want to. Birth control - from saying 'no' to taking the pill. You're too smart not to use it.'' The 30-second message is the introduction to a five-year campaign by the New York State Family Planning Media Consortium to reduce unintended pregnancies and abortions. The consortium comprises 18 agencies and institutions, including six branches of Planned Parenthood, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, several hospitals and health centers, and government agencies. The group is spending $700,000, mostly in state funds, for television and radio advertisements as well as posters. Stations Refuse to Broadcast Ads

There had been plans to broadcast the advertisement for eight weeks this summer in New York City and Buffalo, and throughout the state next year. But all six commercial stations in New York City turned it down. It is being shown by two commercial stations in Buffalo.

The effort to have the commercial broadcast in the metropolitan area has once more reinforced the battle lines in a persistent controversy: Is the use of television to promote birth control in the public interest, or does it intrude upon religious and moral values?

But this time the debate has acquired some new twists. Public-service announcements concerning birth control have, in fact, been seen from time to time on television in New York State since a message by Planned Parenthood of New York City was broadcast in 1969. But the consortium is seeking to buy time, rather than receive it free from the stations, so it can choose when its commercial will be seen. Stations tend to schedule public-service announcements for late at night or other times when there are fewer people watching.

In addition, since July paid commercials promoting the use of condoms to prevent the spread of acquired immune deficiency syndrome have been shown on stations here.

The AIDS messages, which are sponsored by the New York City Department of Health, are broadcast on Channels 2, 4 and 9. They are not shown on Channels 5, 7 or 11.

Asked why they had ignored longstanding policies by deciding to show ads about AIDS, station executives said they had been influenced by the swift spread of the fatal disease.

Roger Colloff, the vice president and general manager of WCBS-TV, said: ''These policies are all balancing acts; none of them are easy to arrive at. The feeling of the company was that the overwhelming nature of the AIDS epidemic, especially in metropolitan areas like New York, necessitated that we do what we can to prevent the spread of the disease.''

Regarding the birth control ad, he said: ''CBS has had a policy in place for some time that we don't accept advertising of this nature. The reasoning: This is an issue involving intimate personal behavior, the sort of subject matter that some portion of our audience would consider intrusive into their moral or religious beliefs. It was not deemed suitable for mass audience advertising.'' He added, however, that the station's policy was undergoing review.

At WNBC-TV, Bud Carey, the vice president and general manager, said the decision to broadcast the AIDS messages was similarly based on the need to take action. He added, ''We also pointedly stated that any commercial for any device that may also provide contraceptive qualities, such as the condom, must have as its basic appeal the prevention of AIDS.''

But the AIDS messages do not open the door for birth control ads, in the view of Faye Wattleton, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. ''Certainly, showing the spots about AIDS demonstrates a step forward in terms of a terrible public health problem,'' she said, ''but no progess whatever in the terrible health problem of unintended pregnancy. We do not see the two issues as interchangeable.''

The consortium's advertisement is aimed at women 18 to 25 years old, who ''experience the largest number of abortions in the state of New York,'' according to Alfred F. Moran, executive director of Planned Parenthood of New York City, a member of the consortium. He said that barring the commercial from television constituted censorship. ''By blacking us out on all the major New York City television stations, they have created their own kind of censorship,'' he said. Targeting the Women at Risk

''The issue here is the public interest,'' Mr. Moran continued. ''In this country we have six million pregnancies a year, and it is estimated that half of them are unintended. Half of those - or 1.6 million - end in abortion. The stations are withholding information from people at risk and failing to provide them with information that would help them avoid being dependent on abortion.''

There were 148,610 abortions performed in New York State in 1985, the last year for which data are available. Only Washington and California have higher abortion rates.

Executives from all the television stations said they had dealt with birth control, unwanted pregnancy and related subjects in news programs, forums, documentaries, made-for-television movies and series, as well as in public-service spots. But Mr. Moran contends that nothing has the same impact as paid advertisements.

''We are talking about conveying a sustained message to young women,'' he said. ''You need to buy time to get both prime-time exposure and consistency of exposure, day after day, as you do for soap or automobiles, so that the message registers. Discussions on news programs and public-service announcements, which are usually seen at 3 A.M., are very episodic.''

According to George Dessart, vice president for program practices at the CBS Broadcast Group, messages that may be considered acceptable in the context of news or entertainment may not be in advertisements. ''Commercials, both paid ones and public service, exhort, as compared to programming, which is intended to be instructive, informative or entertaining,'' he said. ''When you are discussing a kind of behavior that touches on deeply personal matters, there is a difference between exhortation and informing people of the consequences of behavior.''

Mr. Moran said the option of ''just saying no'' as a birth control method was included in the consortium's ad, ''to say that people make their own choices and that abstinence is a legitimate choice.'' But neither that approach, nor the fact that the word contraception was not mentioned, was able to sway television decision makers. Precautions Do Not Allay Concern

''Even though it includes the phrase about 'saying no,' it is still a paid commercial promoting the use of birth control, and it is our judgment that it is still a controversial issue,'' said a WABC-TV executive who requested that her name not be used.

''We prefer not to deal with such issues in short snippets of 30 seconds,'' she said. ''If you take a topic to people with opposing points of view and cover both sides of the issue, you are in control. If you allow paid advertisements, you are giving the loudest voice to the people with the most money.''

Clearly there will be more dissension before the issue is resolved. In the meantime birth control ads are being shown in other parts of the country, including Buffalo, where the consortium's commercial has been running on WIVB, the CBS affiliate, and WKBW, the ABC affiliate.

Noting that Buffalo was a predominantly Roman Catholic area with generally conservative attitudes, Leslie G. Arries Jr., president and chief executive officer of WIVB, said: ''There has been substantial reaction both pro and con. I have responded to everybody who has written in that we prefer to handle the subject in programs but that because birth control is such a serious matter, we decided to try the spots, too.''